NEW BEDFORD -- The Rev. Donald J. Bowen, formerly a priest in Norton, Mass., turned himself in yesterday at New Bedford Superior Court and pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual abuse.
Father Bowen, 64, returned from a 31-year missionary stint in Bolivia on Sunday to turn himself in, according to Assistant District Attorney Walter Shea.
He was arraigned on one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14, one count of unnatural and lascivious acts on a person under the age of 16 years. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted of both charges.
Father Bowen was released on $100 bail, on the conditions that he regularly check in with the probation department, he surrender his passport, and that he have no contact at all with the alleged victim or her family, who reportedly still live in the area.
The case was continued to Nov. 14, the date of the pretrial conference.
Neither Father Bowen nor his attorney, Peter J. Muse, would comment as they left court yesterday afternoon. It is not known where Father Bowen will stay as the case continues.
Father Bowen was first ordained in the Fall River Diocese in the early 1960s. He served in the town of Norton, where he allegedly began a six-year period of sexual abuse on one 9-year-old female in 1965.
Since his departure from the Fall River Diocese in 1971, he has spent the last three decades serving as a missionary in Bolivia. His accuser brought her allegations to Bristol District Attorney Paul F. Walsh this March, at which time his office demanded the Fall River Diocese provide the names of all priests accused in the last 50 years.
Last week, Walsh released the names of 20 other priests accused in the Fall River Diocese, although he charged none but Bowen with a crime -- the statute of limitations had expired on nearly all the cases. Bowen is the exception because once he left the country in 1971, the statute of limitations froze.
Walsh reasoned that by releasing the names of the priests, he said, he might encourage other victims to come forward. Yesterday, Shea said that he has received calls making specific accusations against priests on Walsh's list, but no additional indictments have been issued.
"We have had a number of calls and we're investigating every call we get," Shea said.
